I think we've seen enough games this year that the stats are helpful. Don't be fooled by last year's final stats, at the end of the year we were allowing just about as much pass yards as this year (200 ypg) we benefited by playing two option teams in the playoffs and our stats went down in that department.

If you look at where we finished last year defensively it's roughly the same from a pass defense perspective, and I would argue that our opponents thus far this year were much tougher than last year. If we don't get torched by USC, we'll be about the same.

The thing that's most concerning to me from a defensive standpoint is our third down defense. Our opponents are converting 44% of the time on our defense. That's terrible, VMI is only worse in the conference. I think that's the biggest weakness we have on defense.

Well, the coach said all the right things, and the players did as well. If focus is the problem, maybe the coaches need to get in their faces more often; and maybe the coaches need to make sure some coaching things like clock management get some attention as well. It is interesting to note that the fumble and near score came on a delayed blitz up the middle. I could be mistaken, but I think any other time we sent a LB it was from the corner. It would seem that success would breed success, and maybe we should have more stunts-both pass and run- in the jar to try to change up a very predictable defensive scheme. Also noticed that on one of the ETSU big pass plays we had six DB's or LB's in the camera shot and they only had one receiver and he made a wide open catch. I know there are seams in a zone, but that seems ridiculous.

youngterrier wrote:The thing that's most concerning to me from a defensive standpoint is our third down defense. Our opponents are converting 44% of the time on our defense. That's terrible, VMI is only worse in the conference. I think that's the biggest weakness we have on defense.

Looking behind this stat, isn’t the reason our 3rd down conversion rate is so poor because our pass defense is so porous? Our opponents know that if they need anywhere between 3-10 yards, that our scheme will willingly give them a generous buffer to get it. See, our results for the last decade + against the up-tempo/2 minute offense.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
-Theodore Roosevelt

I agree with the bit about our scheme...that's the reason our conversion rate on defense is bad (we're 3% worse than last year, statistically pretty much the same). Having said that fast pace offenses have success against everyone